Upon entering a video rental store, one is faced with selecting one of perhaps several hundred video titles that the video rental store has available. Unfortunately, if one is looking for an older video or one that did not receive wide circulation, one will almost certainly not find the video available. Furthermore, even if one desired a recently released video that received wide circulation, one could readily discover that all copies of the video have already been rented.
Alternatively, if one desired to purchase a video, one again faces the possibility that the desired video is either out of stock, is no longer available, or the store does not have as many copies as one desired to purchase. In many cases, one may desire renting a video prior to purchasing it. This is not readily feasible in most rental stores. Even when a video store is found that allows both rental and purchase, the rental price will almost certainly not be applied toward the purchase price of the video.
Due to the physical size required for an inventory of several thousand video titles, the number of locations available to a video rental store is necessarily limited. The cost of an inventory that includes several thousand video titles also limits the number of video rental stores.
Additional disadvantages of renting videos include the fact that the video itself must be physically returned to the video rental store. If one does not return a rented video on time, one is usually faced with late charges. While purchasing a video allows one to watch at will, a rented video must be viewed within a very limited time period, typically 2–5 days.
Privacy and security issues are also relevant with video rentals. Typically one must be registered with a video rental store prior to renting a video. This registration may require disclosure of personal information that some may feel uncomfortable releasing. This registration also allows the video rental store to track an individual's rentals, which may be undesirable. Frequently the registration requires credit card information to guarantee return of the rented video. Increasingly, individuals are becoming leery of providing credit card information due to potential credit card fraud or abuse.